Uncategorized – Page 143 – Public Intelligence Blog

On Saturday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency set out to learn how quickly people could use online social networks to solve a problem of national scope.

The answer: 8 hours 56 minutes, at least when said problem involves $40,000 and a bunch of red balloons.

The winning team was spearheaded by Riley Crane, a postdoctoral research fellow at MIT's Media Lab.

Crane says that the team's decision to spread the wealth was instrumental to its success, as it gave people an incentive to share good information, and a feeling of investment in the process.

Phi Beta Iota: Trust the Washington Post to screw up the headline. This is the OPPOSITE of “Spy vs. Spy” and the reason that “Open Everything” is the only possible answer for resilience in the face of complexity that hierarchical organizations cannot comprehend. Kudos to the MIT student that organized this–there were three parts to his success: 1) sharing the wealth; 2) spreading the word; and 3) near-real-time sensemaking. The secret world is incapable of all three. We still need spies and secrecy, but they should not be blocking the emergence of national intelligence writ large and open.

Full Story Below the Fold

Continue reading “Journal: DARPA & MIT Discover “Share the Wealth””

2009/12/072009/12/07

Journal: ClimateGate Monday 7 Dec 09

Uncategorized

Big three networks highlight own irrelevance by ignoring Climategate email scandal

By ignoring the story, ABC, CBS and NBC are highlighting the failures of themselves and much of the mainstream media. Perhaps more importantly they are contributing to their own demise and irrelevance.

Saudi Arabia calls for ‘climategate' investigation

“We believe this scandal — or what has been referred to as the ‘climategate’ scandal — we think this is definitely going to affect the nature of what could be trusted in our deliberations,” the Saudi Arabian negotiator said.

‘Climategate' shakes trust in scientists: Saudi

The Saudi negotiator rejected IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri's defense of the integrity of the panel's findings — delivered earlier in the plenary session — as “general statements.” “In light of recent information… the scientific scandal has assumed huge proportion,” al-Sabban said.

Climategate: the loonies are out of the asylum

Truth to left-liberals is like garlic to vampires, so I suppose it’s no wonder the world’s watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside) have been reacting so badly to Climategate. A few days ago we had the hugely entertaining spectacle of climate activist Ed Begley Jr losing the plot completely on Fox news. (aka Tofu-crazed Vegan Goes Postal).

Is Google Censoring Climategate? Google Says No.

Overall, there’s no doubt that Climategate is a popular topic, no doubt. However, those who want to demonstrate how popular would be better advised to use Google Trends, rather than the far less dependable web search results counts.

Q&A: ‘Climategate' explained

Phi Beta Iota: CNN is not a news service and does no investigative journalism. It is 24/7 info-tainment for those who cannot or think for themselves. This particular piece is remarkably pathetic.

2009/12/062009/12/06

Journal: Surveillance State Expands Part II

IO Secrets, Uncategorized

Telecomm Spy Manuals

Phi Beta Iota: To be good at intelligence (decision-support) it is important to have a sense of balance between secret and open sources; between collection and processing; and between unilateral and multinational anaysis. The welcome acknowledgement by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that we spend $75 billion a year on secret intelligence and covert action, combined with the recent release of most of the U.S. telecommunications spy manuals now posted at Cryptome, suggest that we are out of balance. We still don't balance between secret and open source collection; we still don't have all-source processing; we still don't do multinational engagement with any depth or breadth; and we still don't provide decision-support to 95% of the federal, state, and local government clients and customers with serious needs.

2009/12/062009/12/06

Search: Counterintelligence & Capitalism

Uncategorized

Great search! We've been thinking recently about writing a piece on Strategic Counterintelligence that begins with Sun Tzu's guidance to “know oneself.” Your search is encouraging. It boils down to one word: INTEGRITY. The problem emerges when we fail to invest in education (as opposed to rote Weapons of Mass Instruction), this ultimate produces a cheating culture in which the political parties are running on empty, Congress feels it can be in breach of trust, and the White House is easy to hijack by a combination of Wall Street-Trilateral Commission and neo-conservatives or neo-liberals partisans.

States fail for two reasons:

Continue reading “Search: Counterintelligence & Capitalism”

2009/12/062009/12/06

Journal: National Intelligence? Revolution in Military Affairs? A Stock-Taking

Uncategorized

Gates: No good intel on Osama bin Laden in years

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States has not had good intelligence on the whereabouts of terrorist Osama bin Laden in years. Gates made the comment in an interview to be aired Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”

The Counter-Revolution In Military Affairs I (2009)

“April 2004 in Iraq is when the lightbulb really went off for me,” Dempsey, now the four-star commander of the Training and Doctrine Command, said in an interview. “Here we were, an Army that prided itself on being on the absolute leading edge of technology, of being able to see first, understand first, and if necessary shoot first; and suddenly we were facing these simultaneous uprisings that none of us saw coming!

We all had this moment like, ‘Wow, I just didn't see that coming!' That didn't mean we should abandon our constant search for new technology to enable us, but it did suggest that relying too heavily on technology in this era was dangerous. In April 2004 in Iraq, technology was less important than understanding anthropology and sociology and what was on the minds of Iraqis on the street.”

The Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs (2007)

This degree of enthusiasm for RMA did not long survive the first flush of triumph. After several years of grueling guerrilla warfare in the Middle East, US strategists are now re-learning the fundamental lessons of Vietnam: that guerilla war is a political, not merely a military, struggle; that technology, no matter how sophisticated or lethal, cannot defeat a determined popular resistance; that resistance fighters draw their power from the sympathies and co-operation of the people.

The Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs (2006)

REVOLUTIONS NOTORIOUSLY IMPRISON THEIR MOST committed supporters. Intellectually, influential elements within our military are locked inside the cells of the Revolution in Military Affairs–the doctrinal cult of the past decade that preaches that technological leaps will transcend millennia-old realities of warfare.

The Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs (1999)

But what if the optimistic projections are wrong? For a start, as some authors have noted, the technologies in question are likely to be of, at best, very limited use in situations like Haiti, Somalia, or Chechenya, which are the most likely type of conflict we will face for at least the immediate future [4]. Further, these new technologies are likely to be of limited use in urban scenarios, such as Beirut.

Continue reading “Journal: National Intelligence? Revolution in Military Affairs? A Stock-Taking”

2009/12/042009/12/04